There are a variety of caster arrangements that have been fabricated for addition to fruniture, consoles, servers, and the like, in addition to casters that are applied to the lower segments of chairs, strollers, and other related items of furniture and the like. In most instances, the casters are designed for specific application to an individual piece of furniture, and normally, such casters simply pressure insert within bores provided within the underside of the furniture legs, and the like, in order to facilitate their installation.
Casters or rollers have been applied to wire type products, but generally, they simply are bolted in placed, for the specific installation, and are not capable of being applied to a variety of wire fabricated products, regardless of their design, through the use of a universal type of bracket as devised for this current invention. Examples of the application of casters or rollers to wire fabricated products can be seen in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,407, that issued to an affiliated assignee to that of this current invention.
Other prior art known to the applicants include the United States patent to Hawkins, No. 1,530,116, which discloses a caster, for use upon a carriage, which in this particular instance, is mounted to a lower clamp, while the upper clamp is hingedly connected thereto, and which clamps are then held in position once they are embraced around its frame member by means of a wing nut fastener. The U.S. Pat. to Wilson, No. 3,082,879, discloses a caster applied to the bottom of its wire receptacle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,836, discloses also casters affixed to the bottom pan of a series of vertically stacked wire racks. A similar type of design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,139.
The British patent to Smith, No. 842,929, discloses means for interlocking an upper block with a lower bracket, by means of a clamp, and for holding a caster in place. Another British patent to Vollberg, No. 2174295A, shows another form of clamping means, for clamping about a pair of wires, and wherein the journal for the caster has clamp members that secure thereon, by means of a nut, and which clamp around the wires to secure the caster to any type of wire product, such as a cart, trolley, or the like.